Focus on what unites, not what divides, Modi urges as India hosts G20 FMs under shadow of Russia-Ukraine war

The G20 must not let the issues that it cannot resolve come in the way of resolving the ones it can, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday, making a bid to salvage India’s presidency of the premier forum for international economic cooperation from being overshadowed by the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

“As you meet in the land of Gandhi and the Buddha, I pray that you will draw inspiration from India’s civilizational ethos – to focus not on what divides us, but on what unites us,” Modi said, in a video message delivered at the inaugural session of the G20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting in New Delhi.

The US and the other western nations used the forum to step up attack on Russia for its military aggression against Ukraine.

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Russia and China too tried to turn the table on the US and its allies.

“You are meeting at a time of deep global divisions,” Modi said in his message to the G20 Foreign Ministers. “As Foreign Ministers, it is but natural that your discussions are affected by the geopolitical tensions of the day. We all have our positions and our perspectives on how these tensions should be resolved.”

“However, as the leading economies of the world, we also have a responsibility towards those who are not in this room,” added the prime minister.

He noted that the world looked upon the G20 to ease the challenges of growth, development, economic resilience; disaster resilience; financial stability; trans-national crime; corruption; terrorism; and food and energy security.

“In all these areas,” he added, “the G20 has capacity to build consensus and deliver concrete results. We should not allow issues that we cannot resolve together to come in the way of those we can.”

The Modi Government in December 2022 took over the chair of the G20 with much fanfare. The tension between Moscow and the western nations over Russia’s “special military operations” in Ukraine, however, started casting its long shadow over India’s presidency of the bloc last month. Russia and China blocked a joint communique that was expected to be issued after the meeting of the G20 finance ministers and the central bank governors in Bengaluru. Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, and the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Shaktikanta Das, who hosted the conclave, had to issue a chair’s statement, summarising discussions during the meeting. They clarified that Russia and China objected to the two paragraphs of the chair’s summary – the ones, which condemned Russia’s war against Ukraine and referred to its impact on the global economy.

The meeting in Bengaluru from February 24 to 25 was the first ministerial conclave of the G20 after India took over the presidency of the bloc.

The meeting of the foreign ministers in New Delhi on Thursday was the second ministerial conclave of India’s G20 presidency. It too saw the acrimony between Russia and the US-led West over the war in Ukraine coming to the fore.

New Delhi is now worried over the possibility that the Russia-Ukraine could overshadow the summit, which prime minister will host in New Delhi – just about six months away.

The experience of the last few years – financial crisis, climate change, pandemic, terrorism, and wars – clearly shows that the architecture of global governance, created after the World War II, has failed in both its mandates – preventing future wars by balancing competing interests and fostering international cooperation on issues of common interests, the prime minister told the foreign ministers of the G20 nations.

“We must also admit that the tragic consequences of this failure are being faced most of all by the developing countries. After years of progress, we are at risk today of moving back on the Sustainable Development Goals,” Modi said, adding that many developing countries were struggling with unsustainable debt, while trying to ensure food and energy security for their people. “They are also the ones most affected by global warming caused by richer countries. This is why India’s G20 Presidency has tried to give a voice to the Global South.”